Gas valves are known which are opened and closed via a relay. It is also known for such relays for opening and closing gas valves to be activated via a control device, often in the form of a microprocessor. It can be important here that the overall arrangement is failsafe, i.e. that a gas valve is only opened via a relay when the control device is in a defined state. If an undefined state of the control device is present, it is desirable that the relay not open the gas valve. For this, control circuits for relay-operated gas valves sometimes have a failsafe circuit in addition to the relay, where the failsafe circuit is connected between the control device and the relay. The failsafe circuit may help ensure the failure safety of the overall arrangement.